TITLE:
Comment on “Quantitative Evaluation of Commercially Available Test Kit for Ciguatera in Fish”
AUTHORS:
Joanne S. M. Ebesu, Cara E. Campora
KEYWORDS:
Ciguatera; Cigua-Check®; Ciguatoxin; Neuroblastoma Cell Assay
JOURNAL NAME:
Food and Nutrition Sciences,
Vol.3 No.9,
September
11,
2012
ABSTRACT: This letter is in regards to the paper, “Quantitative evaluation of commercially available test kit for ciguatera in fish” [1]. We were compelled to respond because the entire premise of this paper is flawed, thus invalidating its stated conclusions. The data presented in the paper is derived from the opinions of four independent readers who evaluated identical Cigua-Check? test sticks to screen fish samples for ciguatoxin (CTX), the results of which were then compared with corresponding samples tested in a non-specific bioassay with questionable statistics (see Table 1 [1]). In addition to several factual errors presented in the paper, we have identified several issues with this study, such as insufficient detail and questionable data analyses, that make its interpretations unreliable.